Letters to SAR: May 1998

By Dan Shea

Dear SAR,

Many of us have wondered what that little Colt marked tool is that comes with the Colt R6920 14.5” M4 Upper Conversion Kit and the R6920 16” M4 Upper Conversion Kit. After numerous calls to Colt (on their toll-free number, of course) over a period of two months, I finally got the answer today. I guess that Joe, a new guy in Colt’s customer service, hasn’t been there long enough to know how to blow off such questions. He actually dug up the answer and called me back!

The little tool, with a small screwdriver on one end and the other end being a “V” shaped tool of some kind, dates back to before the Gulf War. Before the war, Colt was supplying the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with Colt rifles (they said they cannot sell them rifles any more). The rear sight on these guns was not the standard Colt rear sight. It had a special, idiot-proof windage adjustment system and this end of the tool was for adjusting it.

Colt said that they had no use for these tools and figured the purchaser of the M4 upper would need a screwdriver so they throw one in with each M4 upper conversion kit.

Little ‘r’ rambo

Dear rambo,

Thank you for the interesting fact. You have certainly answered a question that has had fellow gun enthusiasts scratching their heads for a while.

Dear SAR,

I want to thank you for a fine magazine. I just love it. However, with my January issue the magazine was late and had been opened. No big deal, I thought, it was probably ripped and opened during shipping.

So when my February issue finally arrived on the 8th, it too was opened and had evidently been checked out pretty thoroughly. Pages were bent and dog-eared. I think we have a sneaky “Look-e-Lou” I have changed my post office delivery box to my home address in hopes of getting my copy around the 1st of the month instead of 7 to 8 days after. I also would like to look at my magazine FIRST.

So, I was wondering, have any of your other readers had any problems similar to mine that you’re aware of?

Thank you for the magazine and your time.

Sincerely,

Bob Maxwell

Dear Bob,

We are getting calls once in a while from subscribers with the same concerns as yours. These cases do seem pretty isolated, and are being reported less and less as time goes on.

We obviously have no control as to what happens to the magazine once it is in the hands of the U.S. Post Office but we have tried to come up with an alternative for those of you who live in problem areas.

For an additional $20.00 per year, those of you who live in the continental USA can have your magazine delivered via First Class Mail, in a rugged envelope. This seems to be satisfactorily solving those problems you addressed.

Dear SAR,

It is unusual to get your money’s worth in this hard hearted old world. Small Arms Review is a refreshing exception. The business advise alone is well worth the price of admission. Add to that the really excellent legal columns and of course your well written features, it is an amazing rag.

I am going to make a point of dealing with every business that advertises with you.

JW

Dear JW,

The kind words are certainly appreciated. We are pleased that you are enjoying the magazine and we will work very hard to improve it each month.

As we are sure you know, our publication is greatly enhanced by our advertisers. We have some great companies on board and we certainly encourage all of our readers to do business with them. The more responsive our readers are to the advertisements, the greater number of advertisers we will be able to bring to you. In order to help them track their advertising, please be sure to let them know you saw their ad in SAR.

It is our intention to be an educational and enlightening tool, as well as entertaining. We have some very talented writers submitting features and columns and firmly believe this is an important service to provide to our readers.

We are always open to suggestions that can help us improve. Thank you for taking the time to write and you can rest assured that we take all suggestions into consideration.

This article first appeared in Small Arms Review V1N8 (May 1998)and was posted online on June 9, 2017